Two Tulsans Spearhead Campaign to Redesign the City Flag

A two-man team is starting a campaign to change the City of Tulsa flag, which is the city seal on a white background.

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A couple citizens are tired of Tulsa’s dull city flag and are starting a campaign to design a new one.

The current flag is a white background behind the city seal — a T under an arrowhead on a gold field with an oil derrick on the T’s left and water on its right. Joey Wignarajah isn’t fond of the design.

"When you look at it 100 feet up on a flagpole, you can't tell what's on it. It's not recognizable from afar," Wignarajah said.

Wignarajah said besides not being a good flag, city ordinance prohibits use of it without permission, so people can’t, for example, put it on Tulsa merchandise without potentially facing a misdemeanor charge.

"Is anyone going to prosecute the misdemeanor? Probably not. But what we've found is that why you don't see people running around with it on T-shirts and on their car and things like that like you might see in a city like Chicago or D.C.," Wignarajah said.

Wignarajah and his partner in the campaign, Jacob Johnson, plan to use social media to get input from as many Tulsans as possible. The new flag would be under a Creative Commons license so anyone can use it for any purpose.

"One of the largest flag makers in the U.S. is here in Oklahoma. We want to get them involved. We want to get all of the local print shops, everyone to have this to be able to make whether it be T-shirts, flags, tattoos," Johnson said.

The pair said they won't be asking for city funding for the campaign. The mayor and city council will have final approval of any new design.